First off we must ask ourselves, what exactly is a terrorist? According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a terrorist is “a person, or a group of persons, that use[/s] violent acts to frighten people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal” (Webster). A terrorist can be anyone that fits that criteria. Nowhere in the dictionary, or anywhere for that matter, does it specifically state that terrorist are Muslims or that all Muslims are terrorist. Declaring that all Muslims are terrorist is like saying all Baptists are followers of the Westboro Baptist Church, or that all Catholics have pedophiles as priests. It's illogical to name a group of people a derogatory term just because of the wrongdoing of someone associated with that …show more content…
Islam is a faith, also a way of life, in which the followers believe in a God, Allah, and a prophet Muhammed, and they are called Muslims. They follow their sacred book called the Quran and they follow the word of Allah and pray so they can earn their spot in Heaven when they die. Islam means submission, so the religion is a submission to God. Nothing within their practices is violent, “Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness” (Islamic), therefore the false pretenses some have with this faith based off of what they’ve witnessed on television or have concocted on their own in no way makes Muslims the ideal terrorist. Quite frankly, these mistaken beliefs are due to the media skewing their views on the stories televised which cause a domino effect because people at home get their own interpretation and spread this false definition it to others who again do not do more research. Since terrorists of Muslim descent are the main ones spewed over the media, that is the spearheads Americans have connected to their definitions of terrorist even though they are far from correct. Adel Termos was a 32-year-old Muslim man who noticed a suicide bomber and sacrificed his life by tackling the bomber “[saving] about 200 people who were in the Mosque” (Hall). If …show more content…
After the horrible Chapel Hill shootings, people disgusted by this rising Anti-Muslim belief took to the internet and social media to reach out and show their support or personal experiences on the matter. The hashtag “MuslimLivesMatter,” similar to the previous BlackLivesMatter hashtag, trended on Twitter where Muslim security and oppression were brought up, so more people were aware of what was going on around them. The chaos of the Paris terrorist attacks sparked another advocacy group to step up to the plate. The new hashtag “NotInMyName” created by the Active Change Foundation began to trend overnight to rebuttal the bulk of Anti-Muslim tiddle-tiddle resurfacing. This organization was created “to protect and safeguard young people and families from unrest and violence in all its forms” (Not), however the hashtag was invented “to show how ISIS is misrepresenting Islam” (Not). Both of these groups are just two examples on how we are retaliating against the Anti-Muslim bigots that afflict America, and rectify the true identity of the Muslim people and
First, I see terrorism as war and a terrorist in my view is a soldier going to war for certain purpose and reason to destroy. If captured, they should be treated as prisoners of war. What comes to the mind of terrorists is always war such as in military actions because they believe they have a cause to fight for. They are not countries declaring war
The word ‘terrorism’ can be traced back to the French Revolution and the reign of terror committed against the population of France in the 1790s. During this time, thousands of people were killed and the general population was severely oppressed. Also, some of the first instances of terrorist tactics, such as assassination and intimidation, were witnessed in the killing of prominent officials and other opponents of the Revolution. In general, terrorists aim to incite fear in the population through pre-meditated violent acts and gain publicity as a medium in achieving their goals. Such acts include taking hostages, bombings and assassinations, all of which create fear and compliance in a victim or audience. Terrorism can be distinguished from other types of political violence through its disregard for and intentional harming of innocent civilians. Also, terrorists usually adopt a state of mind where one side is always good and any opposition is bad and deserves to be punished. As a result, terrorists will always have some supporters who share the same radical thoughts as them and thus terrorism, as a whole, will always be accepted as a legitimate use of violence. This is the reasoning behind the famous phrase by Gerald Seymour, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”(QUOTE
The term terrorism is used widely in present day especially in the United States. Terrorism is a double standard, the people who commit those terrorist acts, commit the acts out of beliefs and in their eyes ok. Terrorism can be described as the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective by targeting innocent people (Laqueur, 1987). To me the definition mention above is a great definition to describe terrorism as a crime. To aim for innocent people to prove a point which lead major injuries or death in most cases is to most people would be a crime, no questions asked. According to Martha Crenshaw (1995), “Terrorism cannot be defined unless the act, target and possibility of success are analyzed”. So to think, terrorist are people who commit these acts as a way to get their political or religious point across. If we look at the some of the most famous terrorist acts they are automatically labeled crimes. 9/11 was a crime because the persons affiliated with the act, targeted the
All Muslims are not terrorist, as all terrorist aren’t Muslim. There are quite a few Muslims in this country. One thing that is great about this country, is that it was founded and built by immigrants. This country was built by people who came here with a dream, to have a better life. This is a country that was established on the moral foundation of being the land of opportunity. The land of milk and honey, where the streets are paved with gold. So many have come to America to find their golden goose. Many have succeeded in their adventures, and many have failed. Yet things have changed with the times, the people aren’t coming to have a better life. They are coming now to ruin our life and freedom as we know it.
Terrorists, there are multiple different types. You can have terrorists that effect people, the environment, and more so now technological systems. A terrorist is a title that many people or groups of people receive easily from their extreme level of illegal acts. A man named John Brown got the title of a terrorist through many others opinions. Between the little actions he took and the big actions, he was seen as a terrorist.
After reading the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it has made me comprehend times I've been judged and times I've seen others judged. Today people all around the world are judged by multiple elements. The most common types of judgments made from humans are based off of skin color, characteristics, clothes you wear, and the way your body is formed. All of these judgments were discussed, in my life today.
Radical Islamists are activists whose main goal is to form an international group of Islamic believers. They are determined to form this group in whatever way they can, even using violence and having mass killings. The United States of America allows them to be radical because of their needs such as, oil. They take teachings from the Qur’an and radicalize them into violence and harsh beliefs, however, the majority of Muslims do not believe in most all of the ways of radical Islamists.
According to Sabrina Tavernise from New York Times, Terrorism is an ideology, it's not a religion, but the religion that tends to give birth to it most often these days is Islam. The threat from that is very real, and we can't just ignore it. This false preaching is exactly what is promoting these unreasonable courses of action that terrorist do.
Terrorism can be defined different ways by different people. “Terrorism is violence- or the threat of violence used to achieve a political goal” (Terrorism 1), that was Opposing Viewpoint’s definition of terrorism. Opposing Viewpoints says that [Terrorism] “differs
Not all Muslims are terrorist! Who would have thought that 1.6 billion people and some of them are decent human beings. I think that people seem to forget that there have been terrorist acts performed by Non-Muslims. A terrorist act by definition is the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals, this is don’t through the intimidation and coercion of instilling fear. Just two months ago a Non-Muslim man drove a car through Bourke St in Melbourne killing 4 people if that’s not terrorism than what is and in 1978 when preacher Jim Jones performed a mass suicide by putting cyanide in Kool aid and his parishioners either took it willingly or were forced, 900 people died that
Although terrorist can be labeled into different categories, it is important to remember that even though a group of terrorist may fall under different labels that they have distinct similarities. In McEntire, there are five similarities that are noted. The first similarity is that terrorists see the world simply in the terms of right and wrong. The second similarity is that terrorists are disturbed by their current situation. What this means is that terrorists are saddened with current problems in the society and know what they would like to see differently. The third similarity is that terrorists have a unique image of themselves. McEntire elaborates further on this by stating that terrorist consider themselves to be more entitled than others,
What is a terrorist? According to the F.B.I., terrorists are individuals that meet the following three characteristics: (1) they are involved in “violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law”; (2) intend to intimidate or influence a civilian population or government through methods of mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; (3) reside“outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S., or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum” (“Definitions of Terrorism in the U.S. Code”). Terrorists use violence as a tool to strike fear into people that
“Stairs narrow toward the top. It becomes harder to turn back with each step” (Kershaw, 2010). As said before, there is not a “cookie cutter” definition of what creates a terrorist. One thing is very evident, the radicalization process of an individual is complex, diverse, and is often comprised of idiosyncratic characteristics.
When we think of terrorist, we might think of radical Islamic individuals or groups who would take pride in killing anyone who is not Muslim. Even more, there are antagonistically people who want nothing more but to destroy the lives of innocence people because of their belief system. Take an individual like Theodore Kaczynski for instance; he was a former University of California at Berkeley math professor. Otherwise known as the “Unabomber,” he was indeed a terrorist because he used explosives that killed three people and wounded eighteen others in a span of almost two decades. Even more, his brother David Kaczynski was responsible for his capture.
The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).